Diary: July 2006

I Hate Telemarketers

I don't mind people ringing me up to sell me stuff. Well, that's not true - it interrupts my work and wastes my time, because I never have and never will buy something from someone who approaches me out of the blue. But I don't mind them quite so much if they're polite.

I've recently been getting a lot of calls on my mobile from random companies implying they are Orange wanting to do me a good deal on my contract. Slick, seeing as I haven't been with Orange for several months. I usually say ...

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We Really Love BT (For The Third Year In A Row)

Yes kids, it's that time of the year again - the sun is out, the schools are on holiday, and BT have screwed me over again.

I was kinda expecting something to go wrong. Even I can spot a pattern - last time BT got anything right was in 2002.

In 2004, they said I'd be fine to set up broadband on the new line, I placed an order with Zen, and the order failed. The line was an old-school hard-wired line, and would have to be replaced for stupid money. I decided against that, and went with Blueyonder. Internet ...

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Goodnight, Uriel

My local server Uriel is going offline now. It probably won't be back up until 1st August - if you use any of the services I provide on it, try using Qapla, I've switched most of them over to that.

Yes, so as I said... August 1st. Because BT have messed up, I cannot request my Plusnet ADSL reprovision until 25th at the earliest, which means that I can't get it until 1st August - assuming nothing else goes wrong. Which you can bet it will.

I'll still be online fairly regularly though - going to get a months ...

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Woo, Phone Line Ahoy

I have a phone line, yay! But of course, Plusnet can't get ADSL up and running until Wed 02 Aug. And my temporary mail server has disappeared (probably buckled under the weight of my spam - so much for taking the strain during my move) and so I can't pick that up - tried to get it direct, but after being sat here on a t-mobile connection in starbucks for 5 minutes it had only downloaded 100 of 74039, so I figured I'd give up on that. Which is a real pain, because I know I have a lot ...

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Who Here Uses VoIP?

I'm considering using some kind of VoIP service, and I'm interested to see if any of you are using one?

I'm currently looking at services with an incoming landline number and call forwarding. That would mean that I can get a single number, give that out to clients, and I can then forward that to whichever phone I am closest to, or a central answerphone if I'm unavailable. Sounds like a good plan to me.

DavidH suggested Skype, and it looks quite good. There is a cheap annual fee, but I'd have to pay 1 ...

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